A collection of political essays by Norman Mailer, which was reportedly canceled by Random House, will be published by independent press Skyhorse, the Associated Press reports.
A controversy surrounding the late author and the planned book erupted earlier this week after journalist Michael Wolff claimed in an article for The Ankler that Random House had decided not to publish the collection after objections from a “junior staffer.”
The staffer, Wolff alleged, was scandalized by the title of Mailer’s famous 1957 essay “The White Negro.” Mailer was a controversial figure during his lifetime; in 1960, he famously stabbed his then-wife, nearly killing her.
Wolff’s article was met with skepticism from many literary observers, who doubted that a junior employee would have the clout necessary to “cancel” the famed author of The Executioner’s Song and The Armies of the Night.
In the New Republic, Alex Shephard wrote, “The available evidence suggests that cancel culture is a fig leaf being used to cover up baser concerns: namely the fact that the essay collection wouldn’t sell enough to justify the slight possibility of widespread criticism.”
Mailer’s son John Buffalo Mailer also said he doubted that “cancel culture” had anything to do with Random House’s decision, telling the New York Times, “I don’t think they have any interest in trying to cancel Norman Mailer. You can’t cancel Norman Mailer.”
Skyhorse has previously picked up books discarded by other publishers, including Blake Bailey’s biography of Philip Roth, which publisher W.W. Norton pulled after sexual assault allegations against Bailey, and a memoir from Woody Allen, who has been accused of molesting his daughter, Dylan Farrow.
The collection had reportedly been scheduled for 2023, to coincide with the centennial of Mailer’s birth. Skyhorse has not announced a publication date for the book.
Michael Schaub is a Texas-based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.
